Beauty and Beast
by Starry's Light
Summary: Afraid for her friends' lives, Marianne decides to confront the monster of her past on her own. Little does she know that the ones she cares about the most will not allow her to disappear from their lives. Marienz.


**I have become a fire emblem 3 houses dumpsterfire. I am a college student who somehow found the time to pour 140 hours into this game within the last 6 weeks. need I repeat I am a College Student who Somehow Found the Time to Play a Game for 140 Hours in 6 Weeks...  
****(that's roughly 23 hours per week bub)**

**Anyways this is the otp. Spoilers follow for:**

**\- Marianne's chapter paralogue  
****\- Lorenz and Marianne's A support**

Beauty and Beast

The monster leers down over Marianne as her fingers tremble and sight grows blurrier. Her cheeks are cold with the streaks of her tears. She keeps her head bent low, fingers folded in prayer, asking the goddess one last time if she will finally atone for her sins today.

She can hear him over the praying voice in her head, the voice she attempts to stifle him out with. Her pleas to the goddess must go unanswered; his raspy, archaic grumble reaches her despite her efforts not to let it. "Child..." he prowls ever so slightly closer, as if testing the boundary of centuries between them, testing to see if it will break. "You are cursed, as am I." The only reason she can hear him is due to the relationship of blood, and the tears fall faster as she comes to accept it. "Do not pray for redemption. The goddess created us to be this way.

"Your friends are not coming.

"You snuck off alone, didn't you? I smell it on you, the fear, the loneliness."

Her breaths come out shaky, weak. She almost responds, but she deigns not to. No, her friends are not coming. Yes, she did leave on her own, terrified of allowing them near the creature whose blood had cursed her lineage.

She eyes the trees that ring around the clearing momentarily, and she considers running to them—but what's the point? The beast will follow, and no matter how far she dives into the thicket, there are ever more lurking within the musty, foggy shadows of the wandering beast's prowling grounds.

This is suicide. Her cheeks color as her efforts approach fruition.

The professor would be disappointed, but the beast, once he is done speaking, will most certainly not leave enough evidence for her mangled corpse to be identified... and perhaps the professor, thus, will never be able to tell.

She will be forgotten, a wet tear washed away by the folds of time. She will be forgotten and perhaps nobody will care. Nobody will care...

Reminiscing on her life, she determines such is a peaceful way to disappear. Who truly cared for her sake? During the greatest year of her life, her time at the Officer's Academy, she hardly spoke, hardly interacted with the other students. She let them walk over her and didn't bother to speak up, because she _knew_ her blood, even though her adoptive father made sure that_ they_ would not, so what was the point?

A smile creases slowly across her bitter, broken face. What a perfect setup.

She opens her mouth to tell the beast she is ready to die—

Then a thundering of hooves breaks out across the forest ground and throws her words aside. A sleek, dark horse tears into the clearing; Marianne is unable to breathe once she recognizes the rider upon her dear friend Dorte. "No," she whispers, "no, no—you weren't supposed to—"

Somehow he must hear her. His gorgeous lavender hair flips over his shoulder when he turns and faces her. "Marianne!" he shouts, his violet-armored hand extending down to her. When she hesitates, he calls again, desperate, louder, and she cannot refuse him a second time.

Lorenz pulls her to his side, reassuring himself that she's situated on Dorte before unsheathing his lance and rushing forward, striking into the monster's face. A gnarled gash spills ugly blackish blood from its rough, corroded face, and it hisses, its mouth moving as if in guttural prayer.

The violet-armored knight catches Marianne's pale, moon-shaped face full of flush, and he asks her, "Did you... understand that beast's voice?"

Her eyes cast away. A single tear escapes her forlorn eye before she covers her face entirely; Lorenz watches her wobble in place and secures his free hand around her waist, pulling her close. He situates himself sideways on the horse in order to keep her safe from falling. A flash of concern overcomes his usually sleek, well-put-together expression; then he returns to the beast and slashes again at it, leaving a broken tooth in the monster's gaping maw.

The frantic cracking of a nearly-invisible shield alerts him of his opening.

With a screech, the monster spews up and releases poisonous bubbles that splatter to the earth around them. Lorenz tugs Dorte to and fro, deftly swiveling around the attack. He can't get hit now; he doesn't know what happened to Marianne before he found her standing there sobbing her sweet heart out. He doesn't know how much more she can take. Any one attack could...

Stiffening, Lorenz pulls back, out of the beast's range, and secures his gleaming lance—now splattered in the wandering beast's ghastly, colorless blood—to its sheath. With an outstretched hand he summons magical power and forces it forward, sending it into the beast's very core. His ragnarok explodes and the beast shudders, its archaic bones refusing to come undone.

Lorenz grunts, his face tearing into the gruesome anger that threatens to rip him open. His fingers tighten around Marianne; he can still hear her soft sobs even as the monster caterwauls and groans from afar. His magical staff, Thyrsus, allows him to move a little farther back, disappearing into the trees surrounding the clearing, as he pelts attacks at the monster.

What else can he do to keep her safe... for a moment he's panicking, heart thudding, as the beast begins to close in on them in the darkness of the trees, when a flash of pale green alerts him to movement in the clearing.

The professor, as if they somehow know Lorenz and Marianne have retreated to the forest, tosses a disgusted look back at him, something along the lines of _why did you run ahead of the group_. Then they catch Marianne, broken into herself, her pale blue dress spotted in tears, and move on without another word.

Lorenz releases a long, hard breath. Up ahead, the professor and the rest of the Golden Deer make quick, furious work of the wandering beast, their battalions shattering the rest of the monster's shields. Claude's up on his ridiculously majestic dragon, shooting arrows into the monster's face like madness.

As their safety is secured, Lorenz turn to the girl behind him. He places his hands around her shoulders, gently pressing into them. "Marianne. _Why_ in the goddess's name did you go in there by yourself?!" He's angry, and they both can hear it. "I don't—Do you think we... I-I don't understand!" Struggling to breathe, his cheeks color. "I don't... understand. Why would you throw your life away? Marianne, I..." He can't bear to look at her and faces the forest, his hands gripping at her still-warm skin, trying to believe it.

She's still crying, still hiding her face away from him. But, swallowing, she knows she owes him an answer. Her heart thuds rapidly in her chest, edging her on, and the words finally spill out with profuse. "I didn't w-w-want you to get hurt by my burden, Lorenz..."

"What do you..." He turns, again, to the wandering beast. The monster is collapsing to its knees under the expert work of the professor. "You can't take that _thing_ on alone! M-Marianne..." Then it occurs to him. Why she'd go alone. "Did you... no... you—you didn't. You went alone because you—"

The tears spill harder, faster. She's shuddering in his grip. "Yes, you're absolutely right, I-I-I did. I did. I..." Moaning into her hands, she utters, "Lorenz... you don't understand what's wrong with me... I... Last week, I tried to tell you, wh-when we had tea together, I tried to tell you what it is, but I..."

He recalls, and he begins to relax as he recognizes that she is out of danger now. "I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want you to tell me if it was going to give you such grief." His eyes flicker with an uneasy sorrow. "It seems it didn't matter whether you told me or not. You would still suffer from it... I—I should have let you tell me, if it was weighing on you this heavily.

"I'm sorry, Marianne." He releases a sharp breath as he comes to terms with his failure.

"No, I'm—" she starts, forcing her words forward, when the beast suddenly lets out an endless groan and she freezes, wincing. "What's..." She looks up from her wet hands, and her eyes dive behind Lorenz, to the fell beast.

Her mouth opens, then closes. "What's this feeling..." Her hands open, as if on impulse, and she stares into them, attempting to capture her own psyche.

Then she releases a sudden, sharp breath. "The curse... K-Killing the progenitor must have b-b-broken the curse..."

Lorenz opens his mouth to ask her what in the world is going on, but she faces him and he loses his breath. Her eyes are still drowning in tears, but they have softened, a warm, gentle mahogany, like the trees that protect them now. Her lips upturn, and she tells him the truth.

"Lorenz, that creature was one of the original crest bearers. But his crest... i-it was of the beast." Lorenz gasps silently, recalling the story, fitting the pieces together. "I... Lorenz, I am of his bloodline. I was fated to become a monster such as he. But now that he's dead... now that his bloodline has been broken, I..." She slowly inches closer to him until their foreheads bump.

They can't look away from each other. Even before she says it, he guesses her truth. "Now that he's dead, Lorenz," she whispers into him, "I can love you without fearing that my love will one day kill you."

His violet eyes widen. "That's why you did it. You really..." His arms encircle her, pulling her close. Unable to let go. Refusing to let go. "You had reason to believe you were worthless. But... your crest...

He blinks, struggling to take it in. A noble's crest making them cursed? It went completely against his creed of the nobles protecting the commoners with their special, gifted power.

"I-I cannot believe you truly had a burdening crest."

Swallowing, he gently shakes his head. She feels it, and she giggles, lighting the warmth in his heart aflame. Then he whispers, "Well it is not a burden any longer. Nor are you... need I remind you that you never were.

"Marianne, I... I love you too. I'm happy to know you can finally reciprocate my feelings."

Then, as if inside of a dream, their heads tilt and lips meet for the first time.


End file.
